Digital advertising and marketing: only the best ideas worldwide, since 2003

Tag archives: advergame

The Axe Busters have arrived to Japan. Even if you won’t understand a word, it’s definitely an experience worth trying to have some fun, but also to discover a very good work with Flash.

Fortunately the navigation is in English, so you will be able to browse through the content, and discover first of all the “extra animation”, a manga cartoon to introduce the advergame characters and the story behind it. It’s very nicely done, and it even features a dedicated pop song in japanenglish (I guess…)

It’s time for an new episode of Les Nuits Des Clans, a mysterious adventure game launched in France by Nouveau Jour (this is the post about last year’s edition).

Everything is in French but it’s definitely worth giving it a try even if you don’t speak the language… You find yourself on an island and you have to move around to play small (but challenging) advergames and collect words to complete a mysterious sentence that will unlock the doors of the castle.

Once the again the brand behind this complex advergaming experience it’s not revealed. Last year it was Ricard, this time we don’t know yet, but the mystery is part of the game so we are in no hurry to find out.

Sony Pictures movie 30 Days of Night will be soon released in theatres but the site is, of course, already live to start frightening viewers wannabe. Created by Big Spaceship, one of the best agencies in creating movies’ related online experiences, the site is scary enough to build curiosity around the film.
Gaming plays a pivotal role on the site, with a “simple” single player shoot em up and a more complicated (but engaging) multiplayer “kill em all” advergame in which players’ tasks change every day.
Big Spaceship’s work on the multiplayer game looks impressive. Unfortunately I haven’t been able to test it… in a multiplayer game “by definition” you need someone to play with (or against) and visiting the site from Europe at 10 am in the morning I couldn’t find anybody to challenge.

If you’re looking for something creepy in a rainy Wednesday afternoon, check out the advergame launched by Fox to promote the Italian debut of Dexter.
For those of you based in Italy, there’s also a contest to join. The prize are cool: for example, a trip to Miami for 2, or a knives set (!!??!!). However in order to win you “have to” watch Dexter’s episodes and be able to explain what happens. I’m not brave enough to do it…
The agency is Ola.

From the UK, an original advergame to celebrate O2 as sponsor of the England’s rugby team at the upcoming World Cup. It’s called Stare Out, and you play it with your webcam. It’s a challenge against three tough England’s players, the first who blinks, lose.
I haven’t got a webcam so I couldn’t play it myself, but the whole idea looks very interesting and sticky. Check out also the winners and losers gallery, you’ll see nice faces… mostly from the agency that developed the game I guess (look at the backgrounds of the players…).
Adverlab has also the explanation of how the game works (technically): “We capture the output of the webcam using BitmapData, using the current and previous frames of data we apply a Difference filter to the two images and then we analyse, pixel by pixel, what has changed.”

If you’re based in the US, you have a few more days to play online against Roddick and win tickets for the Flushing Meadows final. Lacoste is online with a nice 3D advergame to connect its brand to the US Open and to reward good virtual tennis players with a night to remember.
Since there’s a prize to win, the game is quite difficult and sticky, and it results to be a cool idea for an old stylish brand like Lacoste to connect with its consumers. Unfortunately there is a negative side in the project: they want your data. You cannon play without registering, and if you want to play more than once you have to refer friends (who have to play as well in order to give you more credits).

Wrigley’s new gum has arrived from the future. It’s called 5, and it has debuted online with a site in a Minority Report style.
Don’t ask me what the site is about, because everything looks so weird and futuristic that it’s hard to tell with precision. The goal is to introduce a new gum, 5, and to make people feel it through a sensorial experience. Do they accomplish the mission? Despite the confusion, my answer would be “yes” since the whole experience is quite interesting and definitely generates curiosity.

Pizza meets breakdance and even pizza, in Yo Roto! the advergame launched by Cici’s pizza to do some online branding. As I learnt from Contagious “shakerboarding is a bizarre combination of break dancing and advertising, traditionally used by local car dealers in the States, attracting attention by throwing dance moves while spinning branded signs” and the game is part of an integrated campaign (viral and retail campaing) created by Deutsch.
The game is pretty original and fun to play, but the best thing is that it’s very much connected to the activity they’re doing offline, and this both rare and appreciable.

A couple of months ago we posted about the advergame Electrocity, an educational version “made in New Zealand”, of the popular Sim City. Now it’s time to speak again about Sim City, a game we have been playing and playing since 1989, that Electronic Arts has recently re-released for Nintendo DS. To support the launch, they’ve created a multi-language site that features the history of the game, some videos and a mini-game for hardcore fans.
The site is very well designed, and the game is worth playing since it’s a combination of Tetris and Sim City: fun, difficult therefore addictive (my top score is 9865…).
Too bad the loading functionalities haven’t been properly programmed, you get stuck with the XML content not loaded and this is not only annoying, but also doesn’t allow you to understand how the game is going.

Another pretty nice advergame if you don’t feel like working in this hot summer afternoon… it comes from the UK and it has been developed by Naked Penguin Boy to complement the TV advertising campaign in which KFC promotes the new huge meal the Big Daddy Box Meal.